Monthly GK Capsule May 2019
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Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 National News 1. Arunachalam Muruganantham, Creator of Low-cost Sanitary Napkins, Named in Fortune’s World Leaders List Coimbatore based Arunachalam Muruganantham, inventor of a low-cost sanitary napkins, has been featured on Fortune magazine’s list of world’s 50 greatest leaders.He was also awarded a Padma Shri in 2016 for his initiative. Bill and Melinda Gates top the list for the work of their charitable organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To bridge the gap, social entrepreneur Muruganantham invented a machine in 2004 that turns cellulose into low-cost sanitary napkinsa huge boon for the India women. 2. IIT Madras team develops easy OCR system for nine Indian languages IIT Madras has, over the last decade, developed a unified script for nine Indian languages, named the Bharati script. The team has now gone a step further since developing the script: it has developed a method for reading documents in Bharati script using a multi- lingual optical character recognition (OCR) scheme. The team has also created a finger-spelling method that can be used to generate a sign language for hearing-impaired persons. 3. India to have Defence Cyber Agency in May In order to boostits capabilities to tackle threats emanating from hackersIndia is going to have Defence Cyber Agency (DCA). It include a lot of existing capability from the armed forces that will help tackle threats in the cyber domain and will also have the elements of DRDO working in it. One of the top Army officers, Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen MM Naravane had recently stated that the units of the Cyber agency will be spread across the country. 4. Sebi bars NSE from securities market for 6 months in co-location case The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) directed the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to disgorge Rs 625 crore, along with interest at 12 per cent per annum since 2014. The regulator also barred the exchange for a period of six months from accessing the securities market. In separate orders, Sebi imposed penalties on brokers OPG Securities, Way2Wealth Brokers, and GKN Securities. Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 5. BSNL launches 'Bharat Fibre' broadband service in Kashmir Valley State-owned telecom firm BSNL has become the first operator to start optical fibre-based high-speed broadband service in Pulwama with the launch of 'Bharat Fibre' "This is the first such FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) service deployment in the (Kashmir) Valley under this unique revenue share model The ‘Bharat Fibre’ service has been launched on a revenue sharing basis in a business collaborative model with the local channel partner of Pulwama area. 6. Chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian included in Finance Commission's advisory council Chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian has been included in the advisory council of the 15th Finance Commission as its member. The advisory council was set up in April 2018 to advise the commission on any issue or subject related to the terms of reference (ToR) of the commission. In December 2018, the government appointed Subramanian of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, as the chief economic advisor in the finance ministry for three years. 7. Green Number Plates Are Now Mandatory For All Electric Vehicles Indian government had earlier proposed a special green-coloured number plate for all electric vehicles in the country. The measures are aimed to attract buyers towards electric vehicles over the coming years The Central government has now asked the state transport departments to make it mandatory for all EVs to use the green number plates, irrespective of the year in which they were bought. The special number plate is supposed to have the vehicle number spelled out in white colour on a green background. 8. Unicef, Niti Aayog tie up for children empowerment Niti Aayogs Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Unicef Indiasigned a Letter of Intent (LoI) to provide an open platform to promote participation, skilling and empowerment among young children across different communities. The LoI was signed by Yasmin Ali Haque, Unicef representative in India, and Ramanathan Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission. This strategic partnership will also help effectively build capacities of adolescents, young entrepreneurs, mentors and teachers. 9. Nepali Girl Bandana Dances For 126 Hours Straight To Set New World Record A Nepali teenager danced continuously for 126 hours to set a Guinness World Records on "Longest Dancing Marathon by an Individual", a feat previously hold by an Indian. Bandana Nepal beat the record set by Kalamandalam Hemlatha, who danced continuously for 123 hours and 15 minutes in 2011. Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli honoured the 18-year-old girl, Bandana Nepal, for achieving the feat. 10. Vodafone Idea signs multi-million dollar IT deal with IBM India's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltdannounced a five-year multi- million-dollar IT outsourcing deal with tech giant IBM. The collaboration will provide Vodafone Idea with a hybrid cloud based digital platform to enable more intimate engagement with its over 387 million subscribers (as of 31 December, 2018), enhancing business efficiency. The deal will also provide a platform for fast-track joint initiatives in Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things. 11. Gates Foundation Hires Senior Tata Official as India Policy Head The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has hired a senior executive from Tata Group, India’s largest business group, for its operations in the country. Ubale, who has spent more than a decade at Tata Group, was previously chief executive officer of its closely-held property arm Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd. The Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private charity, has an endowment of $50.7 billion. 12. E-Governance Services India ties up with IIT-Kanpur to upscale Unnat Bharat Abhiyan E-Governance Services India Limited,has tied up with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur to upscale ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’. ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ is an initiative of the Ministry of HRD,aims to find solutions to accelerate sustainable growth in rural India. Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, IIT-Kanpur has brought together 15 leading higher education institutions from Uttar Pradesh. 13. Gujarat Assembly Passes Act to Allow Shops & Businesses Remain Open 24X7 The Gujarat state Assembly has passed a new Act ‘Gujarat Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2019’ that will allow shops and other businesses in the state to operate 24 hours. The act, passed by the state Assembly in February, was notified on May 1, a government release. The shops and commercial entities operating near state highways and within municipality limits can now operate between 6 am to 2 am. 14. Vice President to embark on a four-day visit to Vietnam Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu will embark on a four-day official visit to Vietnam from May 09. His visit is expected to enhance India’s comprehensive strategic partnership with the Southeast Asian nation. Upon his arrival in Vietnam’s Capital Honoi, Shri Naidu will address the Indian Community at a reception hosted by the Ambassador of India. Shri Naidu’s participation at the event is expected to further strengthen ties between India and Buddhist communities worldwide. 15. Indian giant Amul to sponsor Afghanistan in 2019 World Cup Amul has been announced as the principal sponsor of the Afghanistan cricket team for the upcoming World Cup, slated to be held in England and Wales from May 30. The logo of brand Amul will appear on the leading arm of the Afghanistan team playing jerseys as well as on the training kits throughout the showpiece event. Afghanistan will play two warm-up matches against Pakistan and England on May 24 and 27 respectively before beginning their World Cup campaign against Australia on June 1. 16. PM Modi 2nd most followed politician globally on social media Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the second most followed politician in the world on social media after former US President Barack Obama. Modi has a total audience of 110.9 million on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Obama's total following stood at 182.7 million. Congress party President Rahul Gandhi has accumulated 12 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 17. Kerala linked Aadhaar to attendance governmentoces. Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has made Aadhaar-based attendance mandatory for all governmentoces in the state. All government oces are to install Aadhaar-based biometric attendance systems within six months, according to the 6 May order. 560,000 ocials, from those in the secretariat to government school staff, will need an Aadhaar number to draw their salaries. 18. WTO meeting began in Delhi. The World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting of developing countries began in New Delhi . The meeting will provide an opportunity for the Ministers to discuss various issues and way forward.16 developing countries and 6 Least Developed Countries, LDCs are participating in the meeting including China, South Africa, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh. 19. Kerala State to go paper less under E Vidhan initiative Monthly GK Capsule May 2019 The Kerala Legislative Assembly recently announced an initiative to digitize all its records and proceedings under its ambitious project called E-Vidh. It is expected that if Kerala Assembly shifts completely into e-space it will save time as well as printing costs of about Rs.35 crore to Rs.49 crore . This will make their functioning transparent, responsive, productive, more accountable and participative to public. Foot Notes :- Capital - Thiruvananthapuram CM - Shri Pinarayi Vijayan Governor-Shri Justice (Retd.) Palaniswamy National Park –Periyar 20.